Chapter 741 A Husk"You're not going to teach me anymore?" the princess asked with a blank look. "Are you not going to visit me anymore?"

"I will have to leave this country in a week," Ning said. "But that doesn't mean I won't come to visit you. It will just be… a little longer each time."

The princess wasn't exactly sad, but she was still feeling bad about the news.

"Your teacher has his own life, Janice," the king said. "He will now go and teach other students just like you."

"Is that so?" the princess asked.

Ning nodded.

"Okay," the princess said. "But you have to fulfill your promise first."

"My promise?" Ning asked.

"You said I could meet with slimy today," she said.

Ning sighed and chuckled a bit. "Okay, I will go get him. You go stay in your room."

Ning left the palace and disappeared into the night. When he reappeared, he was on the island with the beasts and saw the slime speak with the beasts.

"Oh you're back?" the slime said. He didn't think Ning would return so quickly.

"The little girl wants to see you. Do you have the time?" Ning asked.

"Uhh… I guess so. I don't have anything particular going on," the slime said.

"Let's go then," Ning said. He touched the slime and they. Ning appeared directly in the princess's room, scaring Joann to the side.

She had been feeling a little jumpy since the princess disappeared on her own, but she calmed herself quickly.

However, when she saw the floating piece of a blue blob, a pair of daggers appeared in her hands as she got ready to attack.

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"Calm down," Ning said when she saw her stance. "This is the slime."

"SLIMY!" the princess shouted and grabbed onto the slime. Her hands practically sunk into the slimy, but the slime managed to manipulate itself so that her hands were now outside of it.

"Oh, hello little girl. We meet again," the slime spoke in perfectly understandable words. He was a little glad that he still understood the language despite not being bonded with the princess.

"Teacher, thank you," the little girl said and started laughing as she played with him for a while.

Ning looked at the princess and smiled.

The slime, having an adult soul with relatively adult memories, didn't like playing with a little girl, but he did accept it for now as this was the only way to interact with the humans.

"Come, let me show you to my parents," she said and jumped off the bed before running away out into the hall.

Ning wanted to stop her, but when he thought about it, it was perhaps better for the slime to talk to them. So, when the slime did eventually come around, here again, he would have someone to rely on.

In a way, they would have someone to rely on too.

Ning didn't want to leave them just like that without protection, and he couldn't think of better protection than a Rank 10 beast.

The princess returned not long after with the slime floating by her side. Ning looked at the blob-like slime and thought for a moment.

The slime was going to be with the princes for a while, and it didn't look like he would enter Rank 10 anytime soon, so he decided to help it a little to interact with the humans.

He talked with the system for a bit and created something.

As the others focused on their own things, Ning had something emerge on his hands.

"Joann, can you take the princes out for a bit?" he asked.

Joann didn't understand why he had said that, but she did as he asked. She took the princess outside and left Ning and the slime together.

"Here, wear this," Ning said as he dropped something on the bed.

When the slime saw what it was, his first instinct was to vomit. Human flesh and bones lay in front of the slime on the bed like a dead body.

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The lean and thin body had barely any muscles from what the slime could see, and worse of all, it was the corpse of a child.

"What is this?" he asked seriously.

"Something I made for you," Ning said and was surprised to see a look of disgust on the slime's face.

Only then did he realize what it must have looked like from the slime's perspective.

"Oh, don't misunderstand. It's not a corpse. It's a body I made. You can go in there and puppeteer it from the inside. I made it exactly to fit your body," he said.

"So you didn't kill anyone?" the slime asked.

"No," Ning said. "In fact, this body you see of mine is similar to this to a certain degree."

"Is that so?" the slime asked, before slowly moving towards the body in front of it.

When it saw its face, the slime hesitated a bit. This was the body of a child.

"Why a child?" the slime asked.

"Your body volume isn't big enough otherwise," Ning said. "I can't give you an adult body. You will have to rely on your Rank 10 reward for that."

The slime still hesitated, but the explanation for the body was acceptable, so he shrunk his body and went in.

The slime entered through the mouth, sliding throughout the entire body as the lifeless husk slowly started standing up straight.

Ning watched uncomfortably as the body moved unnaturally before the slime fully got in and took over it completely.

A slight blue hue permeated throughout the skin like the child was sick or something, but other than that, it looked like a normal child.

That was until the child opened his eyes and the translucent blue slime body was visible through it.

"This… this is good. I can move like a human," the slime said as it moved around in its new body.

He turned to Ning. "Thank you."

"It's alright," Ning said. "Try not to keep your eyes open when you can though."

Chapter 742 Happy little PrincessThe little princess didn't want the slime to leave yet, but it was time for her to go to sleep.

"Don't worry Janice, I will come to visit you soon," the slime spoke with his new human body, which the princess apparently hated.

When Ning told her that it was for when the slime had to go out in the world and meet other people, she finally accepted the body.

What she did not accept was that it was time for her to go to sleep. Lucky for Ning, she didn't have a say in that.

As soon as Joann invoked the queen's name, the little princess scurried off to the bed, got into her blankets, and said goodbye to the two of them.

Ning smiled and walked out with the 9-year-old-looking child by his side.

As soon as no one was around, Ning teleported off.

The slime quickly took off the human body and took it into his own personal space given to him by the system.

Then, it turned to leave to go to his place, but Ning stopped him for a quick word about something.

He wanted to let the slime know how he could go to the human world without Ning's aid.

Ning smiled when he realized he didn't have to worry about that. The slime had his own idea.

His plan was to have the princess summon him each time he wanted to spend his time somewhere else. As long as he accepted the words of the bond, the princess could summon him regardless of his Rank.

Of course, the higher his Rank was, the more spiritual energy the princess would have to expend just to even notice him. But the slime had an idea on how to solve that problem.

He planned to increase the princess's rank by summoning her on his own first. After that, as long as she was Rank 5, she would have no problem summoning the slime.

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Ning didn't like the idea of increasing the princess's rank this fast, but there really was no problem with this method of improvement as all beasts in the world did the exact same thing to improve.

Ning only wished that the princess didn't let this get to her head. After telling the slime that he would let the princess know, he left.

Ning returned back to the arena as he had to quit from here too. The boss was surprised to hear that, but when Ning let him know he was going far away he couldn't stop it.

When he then heard that Saphandra was leaving as well, the boss might as well have heard of the Arena collapsing from an earthquake.

Ning spent the rest of the day crafting something with the help of the system. He wanted something small and concealable, but at the same time strong as well.

However, he also didn't want it to be so strong that the princess entirely relied upon it as well.

Finally, he came up with an amulet that he thought was perfect.

Ning then met up with the princess later that day and handed her the amulet. He didn't tell her what it was or what it did but only made her promise that she would forever wear this.

The amulet was a protection device with skills like barriers and teleportation built into it that would only work when the princess was in danger. It had healing skills built into it to heal the princess whenever she was hurt, or others around her that she deemed friends were hurt.

It even had destructive skills for when the danger was so great that she couldn't defeat it on her own.

It was also a storage device that the princess could use to store items of up to 100 Kg in weight.

It also had some miscellaneous skills like translating beast language to her own so she could understand what she summoned. It kept her cool in the summer, and warm in the winter. It kept diseases away as well.

Perhaps best of all, it was a way for her to speak with Ning and call him for help whenever she wanted.

Ning only told her about the last point. The other points, she would find on her own, just the way Ning had made it to.

Just learning that she could talk to her teacher whenever she wanted was enough for the princess to keep wearing the amulet forever.

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Ning asked permission from the King and the Queen and told them that he wanted to take the princess out to the sea for a while.

The King was a little hesitant, but the queen knew that being with Ning was infinitely safer than staying in her own room.

After getting their permission, Ning teleported the princess to the ocean, where they hovered over the deep blue water with nothing to stand on.

The princess screamed at first, with fear of falling into the water, but she soon realized that she wasn't falling.

Then, the water shone with bright, white light as a head emerged from underneath.

A dark, spotted head that was very smooth and very large. Before the beast emerged entirely, the princess knew what she was looking at.

"OCCY!" she shouted in surprise. "Occy! You're back."

Ning let her be and the princess fell a meter onto the octopus's head.

She started telling the beast how much she had missed her, and she thought it said it missed her too.

The princess wasn't sure if she was hearing right, but Ning knew she was since the amulet would already be working.

Besides, he was the one that made it say that. After all, he had already dominated the beast before coming here with the princess.

"I have a surprise for you, Janice," Ning said from the side.

"What is it, teacher?" she asked.

"Since I will be leaving soon, Occy has no one to be friends with. So, he wanted me to ask if you will be friends with him and summon him from time to time," Ning said.

"What?" the princess's eyes went wide. "Yes, teacher. Yes. Occy, I will be your friend.

The princess shouted in giddiness at what could be one of the happiest moments of her childhood.

Chapter 743 RanadarNing stood on the deck of the Silvertail. It was one of the most magnificent ships on this side of the world.

The King of Darius himself had gotten a ticket to this ship for Ning for everything he had done for their family.

Ning had taught his daughter, helped his wife, and even taught himself quite a bit to make him feel that simply paying 5000 Spiritual pearls to such a person was simply taking advantage of his kindness.

As such, the day before Ning was to leave, he had handed him the tickets.

Ning smiled aboard the ship as he remembered the adorable little princess cry while hugging him to not let him go.

He would see her from time to time, but it was time for himself to move on with his journey.

He only had 10 more years on this planet and he wanted to spend those times making the best he could of his days.

The salty smell of the air helped him feel at peace.

There were times when he wondered if he should just jump into an object and sleep for 10 years. But, he knew in his heart of hearts that he liked the journey as much as he liked the destination.

Saphandra walked next to him and sat down close to him.

Ning turned to look at her and saw her beautiful face framed in violet hair. Ning's own hair was blue now.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ning asked.

"Sure, go ahead," Saphandra said.

"Do you not want to settle down somewhere?" he asked. "I and Taron will leave this planet in 10 years, but surely you would want to settle down right?"

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"What do you mean?" she asked. "Like finding a man and getting married and stuff?"

"Well, not necessarily getting married, but finding a place you can call home," Ning said. "I'm sure you've been searching for it since you lost your own."

Saphandra's face turned melancholic as she put on a sad smile to speak. "It's not that I don't want to settle down and find a home," she said. "It's more so that… that I don't think I deserve it."

Ning gave a confused look. "You don't deserve it?"

"I… I can't really explain it to you," she said.

Ning had come to understand that there were things in Saphandra's past that she just didn't want to share. While he wanted to know what they were, he respected her privacy and did not use the system to learn about it.

"Explain it to me when you can," Ning said. "I won't judge you."

Saphandra gave a thankful look to Ning for not questioning her so much, and she went back to looking at the ocean.

As they were sitting on the deck, a couple approached them, both with green hair on their head, and sat in front of them.

"Excuse me, would—"

"We dyed our hair," Ning said before the two could even say anything. He had already seen the two staring at them for a while and knew that they were likely scouting them for some school or organization.

It wasn't just them. Ning had had a lot of people approach them with the premise of improving their lives by having them join their schools and such.

While he had changed his hair to blue so people wouldn't be surprised and suspicious when he caused what could only be interpreted as miracles.

The couple returned back with a scowl on their face, but Ning didn't care as they received some free time.

"When do you think the pearls will be ready?" Saphandra asked.

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"Hmm… by nightfall maybe? Surely before we reach Taminghall empire," Ning told her.

"I see," she said. "I'll go back and continue reading then."

Time passed by and Silversail appeared at the port of one of the outer cities of the Taminghall empire.

It was a city called Ranadar, and had one of the biggest fish markets in the entire empire.

Being so close to the equator, the fishes the fishermen got here were some of the best in the world.

Saphandra walked through the port, not far away from the fish market, and had a surprised look on her face.

"I had assumed it would stink way more when I learned it was a fishing city," she said. "But it barely smells like any other city out there. Are you sure this place has a lot of selling and buying of fishes?"

"I'm sure," Ning said. "The only reason you don't smell as much fish is that the fish themselves don't smell as much. Not to mention, it's not the amount that is sold here that makes it the biggest in the empire, or maybe even the close few empires. It's what they sell here."

"Don't they sell fish?" Saphandra asked.

"Yes, but not just any fish," Ning said. "So close to the origin, the fishes here are more attuned to the spiritual energy and have a lot of spiritual energy in them."

"In a way, they are great spirit foods that the nobilities of the empire desire on a daily basis to improve their Spiritual rank," Ning said.

"Oh, fishes here are like that? We didn't have those back in my world," Saphandra said.

"Yes," Ning said. "If I'm not wrong, a single fish that is sold here is equal to about 20 or so pearls worth of spiritual energy. Imagine eating 20 pearls with every meal. Sometimes more."

"I see," Saphandra said as she looked around. "No wonder it's the biggest."

They walked on and soon reached a tavern in the deeper parts of the city where the fish stench didn't reach them.

Ning looked at the tavern that was obviously miles better looking than any tavern he had been to yet.

However, that wasn't much of a surprise as he had already arrived at the western part of the planet. The part that was closer to the origin and had much looser rules about summoning in general.

Chapter 744 Beast License"What are you planning to do now?" Saphandra asked while she ate a bit of food on the tavern floor.

"I don't know," Ning said. "Maybe get myself re-ranked in the summoning circle?"

"That seems unnecessary since you already have all the money you'll ever need," she said.

Ning smiled. "If I have everything I'll ever need, then I'll never have anything to look forward to," he said. "Sometimes, it's better to create goals for yourself, even if they are useless goals."

"Do you have anything to look forward to?" Saphandra asked with an inquisitive look. She really wanted to know.

Ning smiled. "There are a hundred billion star systems in each of the thousands of billions of galaxies in just this one universe. And I am capable of going through infinite universes. Do you really need me to tell you what I have to look forward to?" he asked.

"Dammit, a simple 'yes' would have sufficed. No need to show off," Saphandra said with a pout.

"Alright, see you later," Ning said and left the tavern.

He arrived out on the street and saw various carts and carriages being pulled by beasts in the middle of the street.

There were also a few people riding on beasts, but Ning knew one couldn't just do that and needed some sort of permission.

Permission one could get from the Summoning circle.

Ning quickly navigated the Ranadar city's map in his mind and found the building of the Summoning Circle.

"That's quite far," he thought and stopped a carriage that was coming his way.

The empty carriage, that was being pulled by a deer-like monster of normal size, stopped in front of him.

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The man with a turban on his head looked at Ning and gave a deep bow in surprise. "Where to, young lord?" he asked.

'Young lord?' Ning got confused for a second before realizing he was likely being respected for his hair.

The man himself had his hair hidden with the turban, so Ning couldn't see exactly how proficient he was with summoning.

He did see that he was Rank 4, and that surprised him quite a bit. Rank 4 was something that would make this man one of the richer people in the Arena back in Darius kingdom, and somehow here he was drawing carriage for other people.

'Well you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess,' Ning thought and got onto the carriage. "To the Summoning Circle," Ning told the man.

The man nodded and the deer started walking.

Despite having beasts walk all around the city, Ning was surprised to see just how clean the area was. If someone told Ning that this city had beasts pulling carriages and carts, and people even rode them on the street, he would have definitely assumed that he would be seeing feces every few meters.

However, it was exactly the opposite. There was nothing on the street at all.

That was surprising.

The stone pavement-like roads led him all the way to the Summoning Circle, where he got off and paid the man 5 pearls to bring him here.

That was expensive in his eyes, but there was nothing he could do about it. Everything was expensive in the west.

Ning saw the large building of the Summoning Hall in the city's center, boasting brightly patterned designs that brought anyone and everyone's eyes towards it.

Ning slowly walked towards it with two purposes now.

One, he would need to rerank himself. And second, he would have to get a license to use his beast on the street to ride around.

Ning walked into the Summoning Circle and was immediately taken aback by its size. Yes, it looked big from the outside, but Ning had expected it to have multiple floors. However, it didn't.

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It was all just one big floor with ceilings that touched the sky. Giant pillars shouldered the ceiling, each with depictions of beasts and names of the people who summoned them.

Like a hall of fame, or in this case a pillar of fame.

The line for anything was long here. There were at least 10 people in each one of the queues for anything here.

Before getting in the queue, however, Ning walked up to the board that said 'For Newcomers.'

-Welcome to the Summoning Circle Of Ranadar City.-

Ning continued reading and realized it was there to explain to them how to get ranked and be a summoner of the circle or create quests to request for help.

Ning quickly skipped all of that and reached the part of the information that really intrigued him.

To rerank, it was simple. He simply needed to line up with the new rankers and mention that you needed to rerank. It cost you quite a bit to rerank, but Ning didn't care about money.

Next, he learned about the beast license, which wasn't something provided by the Summoning Circle, but rather the Empire.

Not every empire would have similar rules, but the license should work for all of them.

Ning read through the rules for the license. He had to give a small written test to see if he knew the rules of using beasts in daily life in the Empire.

The rules were there mostly to help maintain normalcy in the empire despite having the beasts.

Some of the rules were that you were allowed to summon beasts that were venomous or poisonous by nature. You couldn't summon a beast that took up more than the width and height of a normal carriage, whose measurements were written there.

You were also not allowed to summon bugs or flying beasts like the beast that you would use to carry you around.

There were a few more rules that Ning read, but most of them were similar to these and were there to not cause any inconveniences to the average person that walked around the city or even went around in their own beasts.

Once Ning read through all of these, he went ahead and lined up to both get reranked and get a Beast License.

Chapter 745 Postal ServiceNing wrote some answers on a paper in a room where they were taking the test to get the beast license.

The owl on the man's shoulder looked at every single one, most likely to see if Spiritual energy was being worked in between the examinees.

Ning could easily remember everything he read outside, so he finished the exam rather quickly.

He handed the exam papers over to the invigilator and walked out to the practical exam.

Here, he was to summon beasts that fit the criteria, which the judges would check to see if he passed or not.

Ning summoned a moose with horns that protruded inward and were about the size of a horse in general.

He jumped onto the moose and had it walk around a little.

The judge used their summons to check the various aspects of the moose. They checked how strong it was, how friendly it was, how calm it could remain in the midst of random noises, and even how heavy it was.

Once they checked the dimensions of the beast, they quickly passed it, and Ning unsummoned the moose.

He had passed the test rather easily. Once the written test results were out tomorrow, he would get his license back as well.

Ning then lined up to get re-ranked. He was led somewhere behind the building where he appeared in a large, open space that was full of vegetation.

For a moment, Ning wondered if he had been perhaps teleported somewhere. This sort of big park couldn't have possibly been in the middle of the city, let alone behind a building.

But then, he saw that the giant park was surrounded by buildings with people coming in and out.

"Who's next!" a man called and Ning walked forward. The man took his card and saw that he was Rank 5.

"Alright, summon," he said.

Ning nodded and closed his eyes to feel the beast. He didn't really need to find any particular beast that matched a hundred different descriptions like before, so Ning summoned what he thought was a fun little beast.

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A giant summoning circle appeared underneath them that covered both Ning and the man in it.

The man quickly stepped back in fear that he would get in the way of the summoned beast.

However, Ning stayed where he was and watched the beast get summoned.

A hamster.

The little beast with purple and white fur looked harmless, at least to the normal eyes. However, the man who backed away didn't have normal eyes at the time.

He had been summoning the eyes of a beast with a particular set of vision skills, and he could see the blue and white energy flowing through the little hamster's body.

A giant amount of blue and white energy.

From the color alone, the man knew the elemental alignment of the beast. But, he needed to test some more.

"Have it move around," the man said.

Ning nodded and the hamster disappeared.

The hamster could teleport, but that wasn't what happened just now. A bunch of stacked sonic booms nearly pushed back the man to the ground as the hamster moved at a speed that surpassed the speed of sound by many times.

It caused a small storm and a little commotion as it ran around the park until Ning told it to stop.

The hamster stopped right in front of them while the wind and dirt it dragged threw the area around it into chaos.

The man's face was shocked beyond belief when he understood what the little beast's rank was.

He looked at the tiny beast then at the card in his hand. What the hell did he just witness?

"Unsummon it please," the man said.

Ning nodded and the giant summoning circle appeared again to take the beast back.

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Once the beast disappeared, the man shook his head while writing a new rank for Ning.

Rank 8.

Ning happily got his new rank and turned around to leave. However, before he got out, he saw something in the distance that caught his eye.

In the park, a beast appeared out of nowhere. From what Ning could see, it was a red panda-like beast, which he knew was one of the beasts that had storage spaces from a very low rank.

'How did a beast appear out of nowhere when someone didn't summon it?' Ning wondered for a second. When he really did think about it, however, the answer was obvious.

No one had summoned the beast. But rather, it was unsummoned.

Which meant the beast was from here in the first place and was taken elsewhere.

A group of people appeared from the other buildings and arrived next to the red panda before bonding with it. Once bonded, they took out a lot of items from the beast's storage space, and then the new volumes of items that were next to it disappeared.

Ning saw the summoning circle flash again and knew that the beast had been unbonded.

Then, as he waited, a new summoning circle appeared below the panda's feet and it vanished.

Ning was made to move along not long after, but the scene he had just seen stuck with him.

'That…' he thought. 'That was the post service of this world, wasn't it?'

While many did use ships to send and receive items and letters, the richer ones could afford to use this technique where a beast with a storage space was summoned and unsummoned at two different places to transfer items between them.

This was of course more prevalent in the west, more than in the east where people simply didn't like summoned beasts and skills out in the open.

Still, Ning smiled at the human ingenuity to find methods that suited them where people didn't have any other form of quickly sending around messages to each other.

Kumia used formations, Vilmore had developed telephones, and now Nulwurn used beasts with storage space.

It was fun to see how all these humans solved similar problems in not-so-similar ways.

Chapter 746 A New QuestNing stared at the quest board in front of him for a good 2 minutes trying to see what was good for him.

He didn't care about money, so whatever he would be doing would be for fun.

Helping the fisherman in the sea to kill a beast would be fun, but he had just come to the city half a day ago and he had been in the sea for nearly 5 days before that.

He didn't want to go back to the sea so quickly.

He looked for other quests and saw one that said 'Urgent.'

"Oh," Ning picked the quest and read it thoroughly. Someone was asking for a person with a large amount of storage space to help take their items with them.

He needed to hear answers by today so that he could prepare for other services to take his item.

Ning shrugged as that could be a good way to leave for the inner city. They were already planning on doing that.

He grabbed the paper and went to the clerk to get it accepted. The clerk looked through the paper and gave Ning a weary look.

"This is for Rank 4 summoners," she said, not daring to offend Ning.

"I know," Ning said. "I'm not in the mood of doing something big," he said.

The clerk nodded and quickly got the quest accepted.

Ning looked at what he had to do.

"Arrive by Gerford street around 5 o'clock, enter the Fellowfall restaurant, and go to table number 3? What's up with such strict directions?" Ning wondered.

He checked the time and realized it was around 3 in the afternoon.

He looked up towards the ceiling where a man was hanging by a rope, carving words onto the pillar up high.

Ning Ruogong - Lightning Hamster

Ning couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the beast's name that got him into the pillar of fame.

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He shook his head and left the building. He went around the city, looking at various different locations and tasting local delicacies.

He looked at designs of clothes that were being sold around these parts. He checked out the gambling house where people had two non-bonded beasts fight.

Ning strolled around for 2 more hours before he arrived next to the street he was supposed to.

"Is this Gerford Street?" he looked around at the buildings and located a small restaurant that said Fellowfall restaurant.

He nodded to himself and walked into the restaurant. He stopped a staff there and asked him which table was table 3.

Once he got the answer, Ning walked over to the table where a man with long hat sat alone.

Ning sat in front of him and looked at him.

The man looked surprised and confused for a second when he saw Ning. The blue hair caught him rather off-guard.

Ning on the other hand was surprised at the man's face. He didn't look a day over 20. 'So young?' he thought.

"Hello, can I help you?" the young man asked Ning.

"Can you?" Ning asked before bringing out the quest papers. "You were the one that called me here."

The young man's eyes went slightly wide. "It's you? But you… you…" he pointed towards Ning's head but couldn't bring up the matter of his hair.

"So, let's talk about it? What do I do? What items do I have to store?" Ning asked.

"Oh, um… I have to take away my beds and furniture, and everything else I own in my… the current house I live in," the man said.

"Okay," Ning said.

"Do you not want to hear about the size of… oh you most likely don't care, huh?" the young man said.

"What's your name?" Ning asked.

"Uh…" the young man fidgeted a bit. "Do you need my name? Surely you don't. Do you?"

"Yes I do," Ning said.

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The man hesitated a bit more and finally succumbed to the pressure from Ning and spoke up.

"My name is Trevain Hegalhorth," the young man said and sank his face into his knees.

Ning looked confused. "Did you kill someone?" he asked.

"What? No," the young man looked back up quickly.

"Then rob someone?" he asked.

"Of course not!" the young man said.

"Then why are you hiding your name?" he asked.

"I… do you not know who I am?" the man asked.

Ning shook his head. "Not a clue," he said. He could have a clue, but he didn't care about the young man.

The young man looked rather pleased about this and brought his hand forth to shake with Ning. "Thank you for not judging me based on what the rumors say," he said.

Ning shook his hand. "Don't worry. I haven't heard any rumors. Although, I might go out of my way to hear some now," he said with a chuckle in his voice.

"NO!" the young man shouted and quickly hid behind his table as the people in the room turned to look at him.

When the people turned around, he said "no" again, but a little quieter this time around.

"So, where do I meet you… actually, when do I meet you?" he asked. Now that he thought about it, the quest didn't actually mention the exact date of departure. Just that it was urgent.

"Day after tomorrow," the young man said. "By…"

Ning nodded when he heard the time and location of the next meetup. 'That should be enough time for Saphandra to go around the city and visit it completely,' he thought.

Then we leave for Mooncrest city.

The young man seemed a little happy about the fact that Ning didn't know his name, and Ning let it remain that way. He would know what the young man was up to eventually anyway.

They ordered some food and Ning ate quite a bit before the two of them separated around evening.

The young man quietly walked back towards his home, while Ning returned back to the tavern where he was staying.

Since he had eaten and was tired from the sea journey, he wanted to go to sleep immediately.

Chapter 747 Empty RoomsOnce Ning got his beast license the next day, he went around the city with Saphandra, looking at various different things it had to offer.

They even dined on the fancy fishes that increased their spiritual energy by a lot.

When he told her that they would have to leave tomorrow with some young man to Mooncrest city, Saphandra wasn't annoyed like he had expected her to be.

"Well, I don't see how that's a bad idea," she said.

The next morning, Ning arrived at the destination and was taken aback at the massive mansion in front of him.

"Am I at the right destination?" he wondered for a second before confirming that he was in the right place.

He walked into the mansion that was not guarded by anyone at all. He rang the bell and a person walked out.

A young man wearing what Ning could only assume to be a butler's outfit looked at him strangely. "May I help you?" he asked.

"Uh, is Trevain here? I'm here to get his furniture and whatnot," Ning said.

"Oh, you must be Summoner Ning, welcome," the young man stepped aside and let Ning walk in.

Ning was surprised to see such a young man working as a butler. What was even more surprising was the fact that this young man was Rank 4 already and had blonde hair.

A little more practice and time, and he too could be quite strong to live a decent life in the empire. Better than one that had to do laborious work at least.

Ning walked into the mansion and looked around. The pale blue coloring on the walls gave it quite a unique look compared to most of the other buildings he had been to in the city.

Perhaps only the building with the Summoning Circle was any better than this.

He walked around and saw Trevain through the window in the garden behind, talking to an elderly man with a similar butler outfit as the young man next to him.

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"I will let the young master know that you are here," the young man said.

"Wait, wait, wait! What am I supposed to take exactly? Do you know?" Ning stopped the young man before he left, and asked.

"As far as I know, everything in this house that can come off without breaking or destroying the walls is to be taken out," the young butler said and left Ning.

"Hmm…" Ning looked around the room. "I see."

He looked around at the furniture and got to work.

The young butler quickly ran out to the garden to talk to Trevain who was already speaking with the butler that had arrived today.

"I built so much on my own. I… I will feel sad leaving it all behind," the young man said.

"I'm sure the master is proud of what you have achieved," the butler said as he looked around. The old man did indeed feel proud of himself at what the youngest young master had achieved on his own in just a few years.

"I doubt that," Trevain said.

"Young Master," the young butler finally spoke up from behind them.

"Drefan, what's the matter?" Trevain asked

"The summoner Ning is here," the young man let him know.

"Oh, he's already here?" Trevain was surprised. He had wasted quite a lot of time talking with his father's butler.

He was supposed to separate the furniture into two sections so he could carry half of it, and the other one could carry the other half of it.

If anything remained, Trevain would have Drefan carry them. With the three of them, it was unlikely they would have to leave anything behind.

'Dammit, I should have prepared beforehand. I hope Summoner Ning isn't angry about the amount,' Trevain thought and quickly walked into a room.

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When he did, he was a little taken aback. There was no one in the room. Rather, there was nothing in the room.

Not the tables, not the carpet. Not even the pearl holder at the side of the wall. Everything was already gone.

'Surely we didn't get robbed, right?' he thought. 'No, no, this must be Summoner Ning. He must have summoned his beast before coming here.'

Trevain left the room and went over to the other room. However, here he was surprised too.

'What the hell? Where is everything?' he thought. He left the room and went to another room. However, there was nothing there either.

The young man Trevain frowned slightly. These 3 rooms' worth of furniture was something even he wasn't sure he couldn't completely take with him.

He had been planning to leave a lot of things, like the normal tables and chairs, and anything he didn't think he wouldn't want.

That was how he was planning to separate the 8 room's objects in the first place. However, if Ning had already taken 3 room's items, he wouldn't have space for the other 5 rooms, and then Trevain wouldn't have any place to take in the actual possessions he cared about.

"Brother Ning? You need to throw out some items," he shouted as he walked out of the room.

However, his surprise didn't fade when he went over to the next room and all the items there were missing too. In fact, his surprise only grew.

He went to the 5th room, hoping to find Ning there, but once again, he failed to meet anything but an empty room.

On the 6th one, he knew he would see Ning, but once again, the room was empty.

Trevain couldn't understand how he could be missing so many items with just one man. He even believed that Ning might have brought multiple people.

The 7th one was missing everything too, and finally on the 8th one, in the kitchen, he saw Ning sitting on a single chair as he waited for people to come.

"Oh, hey Trevain," he said as he stood up and the chair beneath him vanished. Now, there was not a single item left in the house.

"So? Is it time to leave?"

Chapter 748 Reaction"Brother Ning, where are my furniture and items? You didn't take them all, did you?" the young man asked.

"Of course," Ning said. "That was the job, right?"

"Yes, but… there were so many here," Trevain looked around. "Ju-just how did you take so many into your storage space?"

"I just did," Ning said, not bothering to explain much.

Trevain understood that the only reason Ning could do this was if Ning had a high rank as a Bondforger. But… how did he have that at such a young age?

"Brother Ning, how old are you?" the young man asked.

Ning looked at him silently for a few seconds before asking, "how old do you think I am?"

"You look younger than me, but by your mannerisms, I can tell you are older. Maybe 23-24?" he asked.

"Close enough," Ning said and didn't say anything else. That was one of the ways he had found to ignore the questions about age. He just made the other person guess and went along with it.

"You must be a once-in-a-lifetime talent if you can take this all in," Trevain said.

"Well, if people had the same advantage I had from the beginning, they would be once-in-a-lifetime talent too," Ning said. "Anyway, when are we leaving?"

"Uh… now that everything here is done, I think I only need to head over to the port and say goodbye to my team," Trevain said.

"Let me know when we leave exactly. I will come with my companion," Ning said.

"Uh, sure." The young man gave him the name of the ship that they were to leave on and where it was in the port.

An hour later, Ning arrived there with Saphandra next to him.

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Both of them looked around the port for a ship that had the name 'Hegalhorth' and had two crescent moons side by side, making a curved 'M' or a flying bird symbol.

Ning found it quite quickly, not because he noticed the name or the crest, but because he saw the young butler standing on top.

A young butler with blonde hair, standing straight on a ship that was about to leave was quite the sight in his opinion.

Ning quickly walked over and met up with Trevain who was sitting on the deck.

"Hey, we're here," Ning said and walked onto the ship with his blue hair flowing in the midday breeze.

The elderly butler was quite shocked to see that the one his young master had employed was someone with blue hair. But, perhaps what was even more shocking was that there was someone with violet hair behind him.

It wasn't just the old man that was shocked, but even Trevain himself abruptly stood up and looked shocked.

He quickly walked up to the two of them and gave a curtsy bow and welcomed them both.

"I am glad to be in your presence, young miss," the young man said.

"Hello. Thank you for letting me travel with you," Saphandra said politely.

"No, no, the pleasure is all mine," the young man said. With Saphandra's violet hair and more than a beautiful face, it sufficed to say that the young man was smitten.

However, he was still noble-born and knew what manners were. He took Ning to the side and said, "Brother Ning, I thought you were bringing a male companion. You didn't mention that it was a girl with violet freaking hair."

"Oh, did I have to? Didn't seem like an important description to let you know beforehand," Ning said.

"It's violet freaking hair. How could it not be important information? I would have made sure to prepare a bigger ship with servants to treat her better if I knew," Trevain said.

Ning smiled. "You are the first one to show this sort of reaction. Usually, people just think her hair is dyed, and even look at her with a disgusted face," he said.

"She came with you. After what I saw you do, I would have to be dropped on the head as a child to not think about what I did. Wait, she isn't dying her hair right?" he asked.

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"No, that is her natural hair. But don't treat her like she's a queen. She hates that," Ning said.

"Oh, I see," Trevain thought and started struggling to keep a question that was inside him.

"What is it? Spit it out," Ning said.

"Umm… are you two…?" he didn't know how to ask the question he really wanted to ask.

"Friends," Ning said. "Just friends."

"Oh," the young man's eyes went wide with hope. "Do you think I can… umm… ask her out?"

"You can try, but the answer will likely be no," Ning said.

"Ok, I will try," the young man turned around to go speak to Saphandra, but the butler was standing behind him and had heard his conversation.

"Young Master, you know you cannot do that," the butler said.

Ning was a little surprised when he heard that. There was someone that would stop a young man from asking Saphandra out? Even if there was no chance of her accepting the proposal, just the possibility of getting together with someone with purple hair alone was enough to make many people think wrong.

However, somehow the butler wasn't going to let it happen. Why?

"I want to," Trevain said.

"No," the butler said firmly and Trevain backed away a bit. The butler immediately softened and frowned. "I'm sorry, young master. But you know you can't do that. You already have a fiancee, and you will have to marry her."

"While you are engaged with her, you cannot be seen together with any other girl, be it someone like her. Just think about the family's reputation," the old butler said.

Trevain crumbled into himself. When the family was brought up, he immediately softened and all the courage he just had for asking Saphandra out vanished.

He took a deep sigh and gave a dejected look, but still, he agreed. "Fine, I won't," he said as he shook his head. "Please get the ship moving."

Chapter 749 Trevain's StoryAn hour passed, but Trevain still had a dejected look on his face.

Ning didn't want to stick his nose in another person's business, but this young man was bringing down the atmosphere, so he wanted to know why he was being so down.

He walked next to Trevain on the deck and sat beside him.

"How long do we have?" he asked him.

"Hm? Oh, I think 3 more hours," Trevain replied. "Mooncrest city is quite far away from Ranadar."

"I see," Ning looked out into the ocean. "You are quite rich in Ranadar city. How did you get so rich at such a young age? Are your parents rich?"

"Yes, very," Trevain said with a sigh. "But, no. I didn't have my father's help in this. I ran away from my house 5 years ago, so I had no help at all."

"To tell the truth, I got lucky really with how I got rich."

"Oh, do tell," Ning said.

"Well, after I ran away from my house, I came to Ranadar city, thinking it was very far and no one would know me. I changed my name and even the way I dressed."

"At first, life was fine, but I needed money. So, I looked to fishing," he said. "But, not only was I bad at fishing, there also weren't many places to fish here."

"So, I went into the sea, close to one of the small uninhabited islands in the south. I sent down my net to fish there, but when I pulled something out, I didn't get any fish," the young man said.

"What did you get if not fish?" Ning asked.

"Oysters," the young man said.

"Oysters? How would they be better than the fi—" Ning paused for a moment. If the young man said he had gotten lucky, then this was unlikely to be a normal oyster.

His eyes went wide. "Spiritual oyster? You found Spiritual Oysters in the wild?" he asked.

"Yes," the young man's eyes shined too. "Not just some oysters too, but many. Turns out, there was an underwater cave where the oysters used to live, and due to some underwater volcanic activity a few years prior, the oysters had shifted outwards, and I was the first to get them."

Spiritual oysters were what formed Spiritual pearls in the first place, so Ning could see how he would consider himself lucky.

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"How many pearls does an oyster make again?" Ning asked.

"Under the right conditions, they can make about 10 to 20 pearls at once. Once harvested, they need around 3 months before the next batch of pearls is ready," the young man said.

"That's over 50 pearls a year from a single Oyster," Ning said. "How many Oysters did you find?"

"About 2000," the young man said.

Ning sighed and shook his head with a chuckle in his voice. "You really were lucky."

Earning 10 thousand Pearls a month with no prior investment really was quite lucky.

"Yeah, once I found the Oysters, I bought part of Ranadar's port to open my own Oyster farm. At the same time, I used to profit to fish for the actual fishes that everyone comes here for."

"Together, my profit went quite high in less than a year. In fact, I even managed to get Drefan there out of the slums and got him to work for me personally. Once I found more people to work in the port, I was free to do anything with my time."

"Unfortunately…"

The young man didn't continue.

"And?" Ning asked.

"Well, my father found me and is now asking for me to return," he said and put on a dejected face again.

"You sold your house and are moving your furniture. What will happen to your Oyster farm?" Ning asked.

"I sold it already," the young man said. "I… I needed to return, and I knew I could never come back here, so I sold it to my friends I made here for a fraction of the price."

"I see," Ning said. He could feel the sadness in his voice when he said he had to sell it.

"Why did you run away from your house? If you don't mind me asking," Ning said.

"Sorry, I do mind," the young man said and refused to answer.

"It's fine," Ning said. "So… Hegalhorth, it's a big family I presume? Maybe even a noble one."

The young man looked back at Ning with a weird look on his face. "You really don't know?" he asked.

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"I came to this empire 3 days ago. Don't expect me to know anything," Ning said.

"I see. Yes, it's a noble family. In fact, my father, Grecian Hegalhorth is one of the 3 dukes of this empire," the young man said.

"Oh," Ning was surprised. He had guessed they were Nobles, but he hadn't thought they would be the Duke's family.

"So… Mooncrest City is your father's Dukedom then," Ning asked.

"Yes," the young man said.

Ning wondered what the duke must have done to make his son run away. He wondered if he should just ask the system to tell him.

But he decided not to.

He chose to let the man keep his secret a secret.

"So, I should be congratulating you on your engagement then? Is the marriage happening anytime soon?" Ning asked.

The young man physically cringed when he heard that, making Ning feel confused.

'What did I say?' he thought for a moment.

"Are you not planning on getting married to your fiancee?" Ning asked.

"I… I am," the young man said.

"Then why that reaction?" He asked. "Do you not love her anymore or what?"

The young man stayed silent.

"Is she perhaps... not pretty?" Ning asked him.

The young man shook his head.

"Oh, so she is ugly," Ning said.

"No," the young man quickly corrected himself. "I… I don't know what she looked like."

"What? How could you not know what your fiancee looks like?" Ning asked.

The young man gave a self-mocking smile and said, "I don't even know who my fiancee is."

Chapter 750: Mooncrest City

"You don't know who you are engaged to?" Ning looked at him with a confused look on his face. "How could you not?"

"I wasn't involved in the engagement. My father made the choice for me," the young man said.

"When did this happen?" Ning asked.

"About 2 months ago, maybe? I'm not sure. I only learned about it a few weeks ago when butler Kwan came and told me about it," the young man said.

"What the hell? You haven't seen the girl you are going to marry or even know about her, and yet you agreed to marry her?"

Saphandra who was sitting quite far away was attracted by Ning's loud conversation with Trevain.

Trevain's face turned red when he realized that Saphandra had learned about this, but he couldn't hide his face anywhere.

"Why don't you say no?" Ning asked.

"I… I can't. He's the duke. I… I can't refuse the duke's orders," the young man said and started playing with the bracelet on his wrist.

"You should stand up to yourself and—"

"Young lady, young man. Please do not involve yourselves in the matter of our young master," the old butler stepped in from the side and stopped the conversation.

"My master has ordered and the young master has already agreed to this. Please do not try to dissuade his mind now, or you will be considered enemies of the Hegalhorth family, and will be treated as such."

The old butler was quite oppressive, and one could tell that he must have spent quite some time in the duke's mansion to get this sort of attitude.

This old man wasn't afraid of anything.

"What? Do you think we will just stop talking if you use your master—"

Saphandra stopped when she saw Ning give her the signal to quiet down. She humphed and moved further away to sit in the corner, alone.

"Butler Kwan, I don't think it was a good idea to try and threaten someone like her," Trevain said softly.

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"It's necessary, young master," the old man said. "Youths usually get overconfident when they have managed to bond with the beasts without losing any efficiency."

"However, they will soon have to learn that sometimes having a higher Rank is much better than having a higher grade of hair," he finished.

Ning raised an eyebrow and stopped himself from nearly laughing out loud.

He patted Trevain's shoulders once and said, "Do what you think is best for you." Then, he left and walked over to Saphandra to sit by her.

The ship went on like normal, but the entire time Trevain was in his own little world, thinking about the future.

Ning saw many islands pass by in the distance, all of which belonged to the Taminghall empire.

The empire consisted of nearly 60 different islands, each of different sizes that were anywhere from a couple to a couple of dozen of kilometers away from each other.

The distance between Ranadar city and Mooncrest city was about 100 kilometers of winding straits and channels of oceanic water.

So, it took them nearly 5 hours to reach Mooncrest city.

As soon as they did, the port was basically made empty for the Duke's son to arrive.

Ning hadn't expected such treatment and was quite surprised. Only now was he starting to realize why Trevain was so surprised when he had shown no reaction to the name 'Hegalhorth.'

A young woman stood at the port, surrounded by guards and beasts of all types.

She wore a pink dress with a purple hue to it around the hem of the dress. She waited impatiently and immediately ran the moment Trevain got off the ship.

"Brother!" she jumped into his hug and started crying.

"Ori?" the young showed a surprised expression. He immediately pulled the young girl away and looked at her again.

In the 5 years, he had been away, the little sister he had left behind had grown into a young lady.

Suddenly, the young man started feeling regret about running away and not being there to see his sister grow up.

"I'm sorry, Ori," he said. "I'm sorry I—"

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"No, don't speak. I understand why you left," she said and hugged him again before saying quietly, "You shouldn't have returned."

The young man nodded, but there was nothing he could do. When the Duke gave an order, there was nothing he could do to disobey him.

Ning and Saphandra got off of the ship as well. Finally, the old and the young butlers got off.

The young woman, who had just moved away from her brother was immediately surprised to see both Ning and Saphandra come off the ship.

Ning was surprised of course, but Saphandra was outright unbelievable.

"Brother, those are?" the girl asked.

"Ah, Brother Ning, Lady Saphandra, come meet my little sister, Orilene," the young man introduced his little sister.

"Hello, Orilene," Ning smiled at the girl.

"Greetings," Saphandra said and nodded at the girl.

"H-h-hello. You can call me Ori," she said and was a little embarrassed. In all her life, she had rarely seen someone with a blue hair that was this young.

As for a young, violet-haired person, that was an impossibility in her eyes. However, somehow both of them were standing in front of her, which surprised her very much.

'Have I ever seen someone that wasn't an elderly with violet hair?' she asked herself.

The guards behind her walked up front and struck the butt of their spear on the ground before saluting the young lord.

Trevain gestured something with his hands and spoke to the guards before they all began moving.

He turned towards Ning and Saphandra and hesitatingly asked, "Would you mind following me to my house?"

Ning chuckled. "I have all your items with me. Where else would I be going if not your house?" he asked.

Trevain's face brightened and showed the way.

Ning and Saphandra were led to a carriage, which then moved on as they went towards the Duke's household.

Chapter 751 Duke's MansionThe rattling carriage made its way through the city.

Ning looked out of the window as the buildings went past them. The city was certainly bigger than the Ranadar city they had just come from. It was more vibrant, less congested, and certainly not as stinky.

The roads were also quite wide, allowing up to 4 different carriages or beasts to walk side by side.

Ning saw the buildings grow sparser and sparser as he moved onto the richer neighborhood in the city where everyone owned more land than they could ever need.

Then, they arrived at a long piece of land with no buildings and only cultivated fields as the carriage started climbing on a small inclined plane, going up a hill to a massive stone mansion sitting at the top of said hill.

The maze-like hedge garden could be seen before they even arrived there, and when they did arrive, Ning saw a large fountain in the middle of a massive pool that was swarmed with fishes in it.

The carriages stopped and Ning walked out, along with Saphandra, while Trevain and Ori walked out from the other carriage they had taken here.

Ning looked around and was surprised at the number of servants this Duke had. 'Well, can't imagine much less from a duke, eh?' he thought.

A woman stood at the front wearing a silvery-white dress with hair that was tied in a bun and was filled with all types of gems and pearls.

"Trevain, you finally came back," the woman said in a slow, methodical manner.

"Stepmother," Trevain nodded towards her and said nothing. Ori still clung on to Trevain's arms and didn't let go of him.

"Come on in. Your father has been waiting for your arrival," the woman said and her eyes drifted to Ning and Saphandra.

"Oh, my… is that your friend?" she asked.

"Uh…"

"Hello, we are Trevain's friends. Thank you for allowing us to stay here for the night," Ning spoke up.

"Of course. Anything for young lords and ladies like you. May I ask what school you come from?" she asked.

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"Ah, no. We do not belong to any school. We are not affiliated with any organization particularly," Ning said.

"Not affiliated?" the woman's slow speaking manner still managed to show her surprise. "Not even this young lady?"

"No," Ning said with a shaking of his head.

The woman all but believed that they weren't really anyone important and had just dyed their hair.

She would be correct for the most part.

"Ori, let your father know that your brother is here. I believe he will want to see him immediately," the woman said.

"Yes, stepmother," the young lady nodded and finally left her brother's arm before walking into the house.

"Come, you must be tired," the woman said and brought them all in.

The butlers and maids quickly brought refreshments as soon as they all were taken to a resting area.

Ning drank a glass of cold purple juice with a tangy flavor to it.

"Do you like it? It was made from freshly picked grapes from the garden," the woman said.

"It's amazing," Ning said.

Trevain stayed silent as he drank the juice, but there was no expression on his face telling whether it was good or not.

The woman walked up to the young man and fixed his dress a bit. She parted his hair in a way that made him look better and straightened the collars of his shirt.

"Your father will call you any moment. You need to be prepared," the woman told him.

"Yes," the young man said without much thought to what was happening around him.

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The young girl, Ori arrived not long after and let Trevain know that their father was expecting him.

The young man took a deep breath and stood up. "Please wait around brother Ning, lady Saphandra. I will be back in a bit," he said and left for the inner halls.

Ning looked at him walk away and wondered if he should eavesdrop on the conversation. However, since this had nothing to do with him, he decided not to.

"Young lady, if it isn't so rude of me, may I ask how old you are?" the woman asked.

"That's nothing rude," Saphandra said in a way that made it impossible to understand whether she was being sarcastic or not.

"I'm 26 years old," she said.

"Oh, so young," the woman said. That only made her wonder more and more if she truly did have the violet hair or if it was dyed.

It was incredibly hard to obtain violet hair without making a beast really happy about the conditions of the bond.

Usually, beasts that did not have much intellect didn't know what happiness was most of the time and so a lower-ranked summoner couldn't get much out of their bonding with them.

However, such a young girl could in no way have violet hair without summoning something really weak and giving it all her spiritual energy.

That was to say, either the girl was very, very, very, almost impossibly lucky. Or… she was a fake and her hair was a ruse to get her into higher society.

The woman had her guess, but she still wanted to confirm.

As for Ning, he came associated with Saphandra. It wasn't like there weren't any blue-haired young men around the world, but his validity still depended on Saphandra's in her eyes.

She wanted to learn if they were real or not, but didn't want to be straightforward with her intention as that would be a really bad impression if they really were what they appeared to be.

"So, where are you two fr—"

A door slammed on the other side of the mansion and made a sound that was loud enough to be heard from where they were.

Trevain walked out with anger in his eyes.

Ori stood up to talk to him, but he even ignored his little sister and walked straight onto the other side of the mansion, leaving the people there stunned.

Chapter 752 DinnerNing and Saphandra remained there in silence, not knowing what to do or say.

'What happened in there?' Ning wondered. He regretted not eavesdropping on the conversation, but quickly sent the thought away.

"I'll go check on brother," Ori said and left. The young girl sprinted away, leaving behind the old woman with the two of them.

"So, where was I? Right, where are you two from exactly?" the woman asked.

Ning gave a weird look to the old woman. "Your step-son just slammed the door and ran away right now, and you don't seem the least bit surprised," he said.

The woman smiled. "I would've been surprised if it didn't happen," she said. "It was within my expectation that he would run out in anger. I'm actually more surprised he didn't show even more of a reaction. He really has grown a lot."

"You expected this to happen?" Saphandra asked.

"Yes," the woman said. "After all, I would doubt anyone would take this sort of news lying down."

"What news?" Ning asked.

The woman smiled. "You shouldn't poke your nose in other people's business, now should you?" she asked.

Ning gave a rueful smile and went back to drinking his juice.

The woman kept them company for a bit longer while asking various questions about where they were from and what they did before this.

She all but asked what their ranks were and whether they had dyed their hairs or not.

The woman was a bit surprised when she learned that they were from the eastern side of the world.

It was well-known that the east was less developed than the west, and that spiritual energy didn't reach there as much as it did in the west. No one knew why, but this was quite well known around the world.

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And somehow, Ning and Saphandra were both from there? The woman had to doubt even more about their hair now.

She left not long after and let them go to the guest room as the light outside was starting to fade away.

Shining pearls hung around the mansion, illuminating it entirely in every hall and corner. Even the lamps outside had multiple pearls to give a glow to the servants working outside.

There was a bath available, so Ning didn't hesitate to wash himself off. Having swum in the ocean multiple times and walking through the streets of Ranadar city, he desperately needed a bath.

While he could clean himself with the system, it just didn't sit right with him until he felt the clean water fall on his body and the soap wash away the sweat, dirt, and grime that more than likely was not on his body.

He changed into a fresh pair of blue shirt and black pants that he had bought from one of the stores in Ranadar City.

The outside was now fully dark and Sena had already shown her face in the sky.

He laid down on the bed in the room and thought with a wry smile about what to do next.

Given that he was here only to bring over Trevain's possessions, he should quickly get it brought out and get his quest signed off. But he didn't feel like it was the right time to approach Trevain with such stuff.

'Well, I'm in the duke's mansion. It's more than fine if the quest gets delayed,' he thought to himself.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door and Ning went out to open it. On the other side of the door was Ori, the youngest daughter of the duke.

"Hey Ori, how can I help you?" Ning asked.

"Sir Ning, would you like to accompany us for our dinner?" she asked shyly.

"Dinner?" Ning thought of the last time he had eaten. Aside from the drinks a little earlier, he hadn't eaten anything since the morning. "I would love to accompany you to dinner."

"Really?" The girl was a little surprised as if she hadn't expected him to accept.

"Yes," Ning said. "Also, don't call me sir. Just call me Brother Ning."

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"Y-yes, brother Ning," the girl said and bowed before walking up to Saphandra's door and knocking on it.

She asked the same question and Saphandra looked at Ning's smiling face before accepting the dinner invitation.

Ning and Saphandra both walked behind Ori before arriving at a brilliantly lit dining hall with low-hanging chandeliers that were filled with at least a hundred different pearls.

There was a long dining table at the center of the room with a chair each on the short side of the table and 4 different chairs on each side of the long side.

Trevain sat on one of the short sides, while on the other end of the table was a middle-aged man with a few gray hairs wearing a black shirt and pants.

He looked to be about 50 years old, a little older than the stepmother that sat on his right.

Ning understood that this was most likely the duke, Grecian Hegalhorth.

On his left sat a young man, a little older looking than Ning, but not by so much. At most, he was 25 years old. He looked at the spitting image of the Duke and his wife.

Ning understood that this was most likely the Duke's and the Duchess' son.

Ori sat next to her stepmother on her right, on the longer side of the table.

Ning walked up to the chair next to Trevain and pulled it to sit down, but before he could do it, the Duchess spoke up.

"Young man, you should sit here," she pointed at the seat next to Ori.

Ning shrugged and walked to the other side to sit next to Ori. At the same time, the older son of the duke walked out of his chair and bowed toward Saphandra.

"My lady, I am Lucius Hegalhorth. Pleased to meet you," the young duke's son said.

He pulled the seat next to him, and Saphandra sat down on it with a slightly annoyed look on her face that she was unable to hide.

Ning looked at the sitting structure that weirdly left out Trevain and realized that he was most likely being punished.

Chapter 753 Scum"You must be the friends my son brought along today. Welcome to my house," the Duke spoke in a regal voice. He held his head up high as he spoke and never kept it at eye level with Ning or the others.

"Thank you for having us," Ning said, and Saphandra followed.

The Duke was more focused on Saphandra than he was on Ning. Ning didn't think much about it after all it would have been weirder if he hadn't focused on Saphandra.

"What's your name, young lady?" he asked.

"I am called Saphandra," she said.

The duke gave a curious look. "No surname?" he asked.

"No," Saphandra shook her head.

The Duke frowned a little bit and barely managed to hide it from fully appearing on his face. Ning caught it as he had been staring at the duke, but the others seemed to have missed it.

"Are you not from any big family? My wife says you are from the west, but certainly, you must belong to a noble household right?" the Duke asked.

"No, I do not belong to any noble family. Rather, I was an orphan since I was born, and while I did have a last name that was given to me at the orphanage, I quickly left it behind at a young age," she said.

She was using the memories in her head from a time when she used to belong to another world to craft a backstory to fit the current purpose.

A violet-haired woman with no background or family was too much of a glaring problem for the Duke to just ignore.

Either the woman was lying about her background, or she was simply appearing to have violet hair.

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"What rank do you—"

"Aren't you a duke?" Saphandra asked.

"I am," the duke said, with a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"I thought dukes were supposed to be more authoritative, have more confidence in themselves. What are you doing beating around the bush when all you really want to know is if my hair color is real or not?" she asked.

The duchess pulled her lips in and bit them to keep herself from smiling while the duke watched with shock on his face. Never in his life had someone told him to get some confidence in himself.

No one would ever really dare. Yet today… he was starting to show some redness on his face from feeling shame.

"Lady Saphandra, that is not very ladylike," the duke's other son, Lucius spoke from her side.

"Well, sorry to break it to you but I've never been ladylike. Also, don't bother trying to court me. I am not going to give you any time of my day," she said directly.

Ning smiled as he saw the drama unfold. He glanced towards Trevain who was gobsmacked by the fact that Saphandra was talking back to both his father and his brother.

"Ahem," the Duke put away any awkward expression he may have and asked, "Lady Saphandra, is your hair real?"

"Yes, it is," she said without hesitation.

"Can you prove it?" the duke asked. Now that he was humiliated in his own house, he wasn't going to keep his questions tucked away in his mind, hoping the answer would come out on its own.

"Can I?" Saphandra thought for a bit. How could she prove her hair wasn't dyed without using her skills? Did she have to let them wash her hair right here? Certainly not, right?

If it were any other person, they could summon some powers from the other beasts that weren't harmful and could use that to prove their strengths.

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They could also bond with a beast that the duke's household might have and use that to prove that they could fully inherit the skills of anything they were bonded to.

But Saphandra's case was a little special.

Ning looked at her thinking about what she could she. From what he understood, she was bonded to little blue permanently and one of the conditions of the bond was that she would always give everything she gathered to little blue.

As such, unless the bond was somehow broken, Saphandra was forever stuck with having no Spiritual energy to summon something.

"What is it? Can you not prove anything? We have some beasts if you want to bond with them," the Duke said.

"She is unable to prove it," Ning spoke from the side. "She is already bonded and has powers, so she is unable to bond to another beast at the time."

"That just sounds like excuses," Lucius spoke from the side.

"That's just the truth, whether you want to believe it or not," Ning said. "Also, why don't we change the topic? I wanted to know why your son is staying so far away. Shouldn't you be trying to get closer now that you've met each other after 5 years?"

"He's being punished for what he did today," Lucius said. "Also, let's not change the topic."

He seemed to have been offended by Saphandra saying that she would not give him the time of the day, so he was now trying to take it out on her.

However, Ning continued, "No, let's do change the topic. I heard your son is getting married, Duke Grecian. You must be quite happy about it," he said. "Although, your son says he doesn't even know who he is being married to, is that true?"

"You don't need to meddle in our family's business," the Duke said coldly.

"That's true," Ning said. "I have no right to say anything about what happens in the family."

"But do you think that's going to stop me from speaking?" Ning asked. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but as Trevain's friend I feel like I must speak for him."

"If for whatever reason what I assume is true, and you really are trying to get your son married off to someone despite his approval, then you really are one of the scummiest fathers I have ever seen."

Chapter 754 FriendsOne by one, the chefs started bringing out dishes that made Ning's mouth water just at the sight of it.

The various different dishes were truly something one could only dream of eating. However, even after the food was on the table and it was starting to cool, no one really gave a thought to eating them.

The Duke's eyes filled with anger while Lucius was one step away from pouncing on Ning.

The stepmother simply smiled at the situation, while Ori was dumbfounded at Ning's courage to speak, up against her father.

Trevain on the other hand was wide-eyed with surprise to the point that he did not even know if he was truly hearing it all correctly.

"What did you call me?" the Duke asked.

"Oh, I called you nothing. I called the version of your that would try to get his son married off without his approval, a scum. Which I hope you aren't, are you?" Ning asked with a smile.

"Do you know who you are speaking to?" Lucius asked from the side.

"Well, certainly not you, am I? I'm pretty sure I was talking with the duke and not his son," Ning said to the young man who tried to stand up for his father.

"Again, I have no idea what is happening behind the scene, so I am only commenting on what I think is happening. If what I speculated is incorrect, then please forgive me," Ning said.

The duke looked at Ning and gave a cold smile. "Are you trying to stand up for your friend?" he asked.

"Uhh… yeah, you can say that," Ning said.

"Your friendship must be quite strong to tempt fate itself, young man," the duke said.

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"I'm just saying it as I see it," Ning said.

The duke turned from Ning to Trevain and asked, "You made friends like this? Even after being gone for 5 years, you still disappoint me."

"Stop," the duchess said as she placed her hands on the duke, but the duke moved it away and continued speaking.

"You need to learn how to judge people. You bring home such people that speak up against a duke without care for their life. Why would you spend 5 years there to make stupid friends like this?" the duke asked.

Trevain's face was cold and shivering. He was one step away from breaking down, and he was barely doing everything he could to keep himself from crying all out.

Ori was already crying, but she had to hide behind her stepmother so her father couldn't see her.

Lucius on the other hand did nothing but sneered all around him.

The dining room grew cold and silent as the only thing that could be heard now was some sniffing here and there.

Ning suddenly grabbed his fork and tore off a piece of the fish and started chewing on it.

"You say some rather mean things to your son, Duke. Is it just the one son or do they all get called these things?" Ning asked.

The Duke grumbled and looked towards Ning who was freely chewing on the delicious fish.

"Oh, and also, I think you misunderstood something here about our relationship. Yes, I am Trevain's friend, but I think you didn't learn when I became friends with him," Ning said.

The duke frowned. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I see, you must have been too busy to either get information from the butler or he simply didn't know it himself," Ning said. "You see… I really only met Trevain today morning. Well, I suppose you could say we met three days ago, but he was hiding his face in the public, so I wouldn't call that a meeting."

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"Well, I should say I became friends with him just today," Ning said.

"What?" the duke was confused. "How could you become friends with him just today. Did you bring to my home someone you didn't know before today?"

The duke confronted his son, but Ning waved his hands from the side to grab his attention. "Oh no, I'm here because he hired me to bring his furniture. That's really just what I was here to do, but we ended up being friends on the trip," Ning said.

The duke said nothing for a while as he kept staring at Ning.

"And you think a day-long friendship is enough for me to let you just threaten and humiliate me?" the duke asked. "Do you not fear death?"

Ning smiled. "That would suggest that you have any possibility of killing me," he said as he shook his head. "You have none."

"You think I don't dare kill you just—"

"Enough!" Trevain shouted from the side. "Enough is enough." He banged his fist on the table with an angry look on his face that no longer had the same crying face as earlier. Finally, he had snapped.

"Keep your voice dow—"

"Or what? What will you do?" Trevain asked with an angry look on his face. "Will you imprison me? Or will you disown me? I don't see how either is better than what I have right now."

"Bastard, is that how you talk to father?" Lucius asked.

"Shut up, or I will kick your face so hard you will be shitting your own teeth tomorrow," Trevain said and turned to his father.

"And you, you can go and tell the senior Tarkov, that I will not marry his daughter. Did you really think I still am who I was 5 years ago? That I would willingly agree to marry a 36-year-old woman who is clearly mentally ill?" he asked.

"Do you know who senior Tarkov is? He is the vice headmaster of the First Bond school. Marrying his daughter will help our family reputation grow to even greater heights. Our political power—"

"I am telling you this now. I am not going to marry any woman that I don't choose myself. I already tried to leave this family once so I don't care about many things."

"As for things like respect, reputations, and political power, you can shove them up your ass."

Chapter 755 AuthorityThe room grew silent, as even the sniffling Ori got quiet when she heard her brother speak up against her father.

The duchess looked shocked and Lucius seemed like he was about to burst with anger. The duke on the other hand was cold like he was contemplating his next set of words to say.

Trevain himself was surprised at his outburst. He didn't think he had it in him, especially not in front of the duke he so feared. However, seeing both Saphandra and Ning talk to their father with no fear, gave him the courage to speak his heart.

"I will give you one chance to apologize," the duke said with no emotion in his voice.

Trevain shuddered. He had used up his courage in an impulse to tell off his father, but now he was feeling like a deflated balloon.

'What should I do?' he thought. But then, he saw Ning smile to the side and remembered what he had said back the boat. 'I should stand up for myself.'

His resolve strengthened and he looked directly at the Duke's eyes. "I don't want to marry a clearly retarded girl. She's 36 and needs to be supported by her family to do even the most basic of things. Why would I ever want to marry a girl like that?" he spoke up.

"So you will not only not apologize for what you said, but you still want to go against me?" the Duke said. "Fine, then I make a decree here that you will marry this girl."

"No!" Trevain said. "Get your other sons to marry her if you want. Lucius seems to be fine with any girl he gets, just make him marry her then. Or better yet, isn't Lanley in First Bond school too? Why don't you have him marry her then if you want to become family with the vice headmaster?"

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"Both Lanley and Lucius are loyal and respectful. Also they aren't a coward like you who runs off at the smallest sign of struggle," the Duke said. "Why would I want to ruin their lives when I have you?"

"Coward? I was 14. You beat me when I couldn't summon a Rank 5 beast when I was 14. I have scars that still burn at night from the time you beat me and you dare say I was a coward?" Trevain asked. "If running away from an abuser was cowardice then I hope everyone in this family was a coward too. You do not deserve any one of us around you."

The air grew solemn as no one dared speak after that. The duchess fidgeted around not knowing if she should speak or not. She knew her husband was in the wrong, but she also knew his temper. If someone really pushed him to the limit where he snapped, she wouldn't know how she could protect her sons.

"Say whatever you want," the Duke didn't care what Trevain thought. "I have already made my choice and no one can change it."

The duke's decree wasn't something anyone could just go against. Now that he was adamant on it, Trevain had no chance at all. He doubted he could even run away now that everyone would be on the lookout for it.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." Ning shook his head. "You couldn't do anything yourself, so now you need your son's help. And somehow you still have the gall to say that you are a duke and everything you say goes."

"Shut your mouth," the Duke said. "You have no place or right to talk to a duke like this and just even going against me is punishable by death. The only reason I'm keeping you alive is because you are a guest and I don't treat my guests unfairly. So, eat your food, take a nap, and leave in the morning."

Ning was a little surprised that the duke was so angry, but it made sense. He continued smiling and said, "You're right. I don't have the right or authority to make you do anything. I should fix that."

Suddenly, Ning vanished.

The duke jumped out of his seat immediately, and prepared for counter attack. Lightning flared around Lucius as he too got ready to attack Ning when he appeared next to his father. However, Ning was truly nowhere to be seen.

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3 seconds later, Ning reappeared back on his seat. And next to him, on the seat closest to Trevain was an old man with gray hair, that was scared, surprised, shocked, and confused all at the same time.

"Whe-where am I?" the old man shouted.

The duke's eyes went wide and he shouted. "You bastard? What is this? Some sort of illusion?"

"Illusion? Of course not. You said I didn't have the right or place, so I brought someone who does," Ning said.

"Grecain? What's going on? Where did you bring me?" the old man shouted rather angrily.

"Your majesty, I did not bring you here. It was that bastard," the duke pointed to Ning. With his word, everyone in the room immediately realized who Ning had brought back home.

"Your majesty," everyone but Saphandra collectively stood up and bowed towards the old man, for he was the Emperor of the Taminghall empire.

"You brought me here? Why? Who are you?" the Emperor asked Ning, ignoring the others who were bowing to him.

"Well, to be truthful with you, you don't know who I am, and I don't know who you are. The duke said that I wasn't allowed to debate with him because it wasn't my place. So I needed your help to tell him that I can," Ning said. "You will, right?"

The Emperor could clearly hear the hidden threat in Ning's words and quickly nodded. "Grecain, let the young man talk."

"Thank you, your majesty," Ning said and turned to the duke. "So, let us converse on why it is a bad thing to try and force your son to marry someone that is nearly twice his age just so you can have a bit more influence."

Chapter 756 Forbidden IslandThe Emperor's eyes shined when he heard that and looked towards the Duke. The duke on the other hand hesitated a bit as he had wanted the news to be public once the marriage was done.

"Who is your son marrying?" the Emperor asked.

"He says it's the daughter of the Vice headmaster of the First Bond school," Ning said before the Duke even had a chance to respond.

"Daughter of… that retarded girl? Why would you want your son to marry that girl? Are you an idiot yourself?" the Emperor couldn't help but ask.

The vice headmaster's first daughter was known to be a girl whose mental functions stopped developing when she was 6 years old due to some injury. So despite being 36 years old, she had the mental capabilities of a 6 years old, who no one would want to marry, ever.

"You want to ruin your son's life just for a little power? Are you that desperate, despite being a duke?" the emperor asked.

"It's…" the duke hesitated a bit. "It's only partly about increasing my political power, your highness."

"Oh? What's the other part then? It better be something really good for you to want to ruin your son's life," the Emperor said coldly.

"The vice headmaster of the First Bond school has 5 spots available to his name. I… I just wanted to get my eldest son one of those spots," the duke said.

"Spot?" the Emperor was confused. "What spot?"

"Your highness, did you not realize?" the Duke asked. "The Sealed Island opens up in 2 months."

"Oh… OH!" the Emperor was surprised. "Right, I forgot about that. Lamar brings it up from time to time, but… but I simply didn't remember."

"Young Lanley is going to get one of those seats?" the Emperor asked.

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"Only if I can take the vice headmaster's daughter off of him," the duke said.

"I see," the Emperor said. "No wonder you are willing to go so far. That makes sense."

Ning looked at the emperor weirdly as the old man's tone had just changed.

"Are you okay with this? It looks like you are okay with this," Saphandra said from the side.

"Young lady, you…" the Emperor paused for a second when he finally paid attention to Saphandra before continuing, "you don't understand what sort of opportunity this is. If it were me, I would give up on being an Emperor if it meant my son could get a chance to enter. This is a monumental opportunity, that only comes once in a lifetime for a person."

"So you're saying you are willing to ruin your youngest son's life if that means your eldest son gets a 'chance' at doing something?" Saphandra asked.

The Emperor hesitated for a bit and looked towards the Duke before saying, "yes, I would."

"Pathetic," Saphandra said.

"Listen here little girl," the Emperor said. "The Forbidden Island only opens up once every 30 years, and only has a select number of people that can enter."

"In the last 3 times it has opened, only 10 or so people have been successful in bonding, and 5 of them have gone off to become the 5 headmasters of the 5 different schools. The rest didn't want anything special, so they are living a peaceful life."

"If there is a chance you can enter such a place, you do whatever you can to enter. What Grecian is doing… I… I would do the same," the Emperor said.

"You're a disappointment of an Emperor. What's so special about this forbidden island? Just what sort of beasts do you bond here?" Saphandra asked in disgust.

Ning on the other hand was already understanding what was happening. If he was right, and that was why they were so desperate, then that made sense.

"No," the Emperor said. "You don't bond any beasts there."

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"Then?" Saphandra asked.

"You bond Spirits," Ning said. "The Forbidden Island is full of spirits, isn't it?"

"Yes," the Emperor said with a weird look. "Are you from one of the 5 schools too? This is sort of secret information that not many know about."

"No, I just guessed," Ning said.

Saphandra was a little bit too surprised. "Spirits? You… you bond spirits there?" she asked.

"Yes, there are many spirits there and you have a chance to bond with them," the Emperor said. "If you do ever bond with a spirit, you won't have to keep that hair dyed. You will actually have proper violet hair."

Saphandra frowned but didn't say anything regarding that. "If there really are many spirits in there, then why the need for spots? Can't everyone who wants to go in just go?"

"I'm afraid not," the Emperor said. "The Forbidden Island is named as such because for most of the time, everyone is forbidden from entering. However, for an entire month, every 30 years, it opens up and allows people in there. But the amount it lets in is dependent on the number of spirits inside."

"It allows 5 people per spirit inside, and they will have to fight each other to get a chance to bond something on their own," the Emperor said. "If I'm not wrong, Lamar said that this year there were about 25 spirits. This means a total of 125 people are allowed in there. Since the 5 academies involved are the ones that determine who can go, you can see why the duke wants to make such a decision."

Saphandra frowned even more. The Emperor's words had logic to them, but that didn't mean they weren't deplorable. She turned to Ning for him to say something, but Ning was already deep in thought.

Spirits were only born in places with very strong Spiritual energy, where the energy can pile up over time to form sentience.

If this place had multiple spirits, then certainly spiritual energy there was one of the strongest on the planet.

On top of that, when Ning factored in the fact that there was a seal around this place, he was certain he knew what this Forbidden Island was.

There was no doubt that it was the Origin of this place.

Chapter 757 Haymond'System, where exactly is this Forbidden Island?' Ning asked.

A piece of information was delivered to his mind and it matched where Ning had thought the Origin would be.

'Is this the Origin of this planet?' Ning asked. Now that he had figured out the location, he could ask the system about it.

Ning smiled. 'Not bad,' he thought.

Saphandra saw Ning lost in his own little world and frowned. "So you are willing to destroy your son's life for just a 'chance' to bond with a spirit?" she asked.

"It's not just about the spirit, young lady," the Emperor said. "The place itself is so dense with spiritual energy that anyone who enters gets to absorb a lot of it and improve their rank."

"Even so—"

"You're not very useful," Ning said suddenly. "I thought you would help change this man's mind, but it seems you are quite greedy yourself too. Time to go back."

Ning grabbed the Emperor and the both of them vanished. Ning returned back after the Emperor was gone and looked at the group.

"One moment, I will fix this thing right now," he said and disappeared.

The group remained there, wondering what he was going to do now.

A carriage rattled in the evening as it made its way away from Mooncrest city. Having left 2 hours ago, they were already far away and in just a couple more hours, they would reach the port on the other city, that would take them back to the school.

The Vice Headmaster of the First Bond school sat in this very carriage, looking through a stack of papers. He was supposed to work on them, but his mind was entirely on the marriage of his little girl.

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His daughter, Yelena, was injured as a child and could never live a normal life. She couldn't support herself, so he and his wife had to support her forever.

However, when the duke came in saying that he would have his son marry his daughter, he had felt a little happy and a little sad.

The Vice Headmaster was getting old, and if he soon didn't find a way to have someone take care of his daughter, they would be in trouble. Which was why he had accepted the Duke's proposal.

He knew what the duke was trying to do, but he didn't care. If for a measly spot of his, he could give his daughter an easy life, he would accept it.

Or so he thought, but he couldn't help but feel bad about the situation. Yes, his daughter was 36 years old, but mentally she was still a child. Having a child marry off just didn't sit right with him.

Not to mention, the duke's son apparently had no idea who he was marrying to and had run off the moment he learned about it.

'Maybe this is a sign to not do it,' the old man thought. He might be closing in on being 60 years old, but he was sure he could still take care of his child for another 10 or even 20 years.

Besides, who knew what sort of development the world would see in the medical sector. Maybe one of those strong healing beasts would also agree to his conditions and give him its powers.

He wasn't sure if that would help his daughter, but he sure would hope that was the case.

The carriage slowly came to a stop, bringing the old man out of his thoughts. "Karl? What happened?" he asked the driver.

"Sir Haymond, there's a man stopping the road out here. He says he wants to meet you," the driver said from outside.

'Someone in the middle of the road not only knows I'm here but also wants to meet me?' The old man immediately got ready for a fight.

"Who is it?" he still asked the driver, who passed along the message.

"He says he's someone who came from the Duke's palace," the driver said.

The old man frowned. 'Why would the duke send someone?' he thought and opened the door to come out. By now, he had already finished summoning some powers and was ready to let it loose if need be.

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Ning saw an old man with a bald head, wrinkled skin, and gray stubble walk out of the carriage.

"Who are you, young man? Are you one of the Duke's sons?" the old man asked.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm just a bystander in what is going on between your and the duke's family. I'm a friend of the son your daughter is going to marry,' Ning said.

"Oh, so… you are not here under the Duke's orders?" the old man asked.

"No," Ning said. "I'm here for my own reasons."

"What might that be?" the old man didn't let his powers disappear and kept them up.

"I want you to cancel your daughter's marriage with the duke's son," Ning said.

The old man frowned. This really didn't seem like something the duke would send someone to say. Maybe it was the son that sent this man.

"And why should I listen to you?" the old man asked.

Ning smiled and said, "Because I can heal your daughter."

The old man thought he heard wrong for a few seconds before realizing he had indeed heard the young man say he could heal his daughter.

"Why do you say you can heal my daughter?" the old man asked. "I have tried many times, and I still can't do it."

"Trust me, I can heal her," Ning said. "If you can't, at least trust in this."

Ning tossed something towards the old man's direction, who caught it instantly with the terrifying reflex he had summoned up.

The old man checked what it was and was a little surprised when he saw it. "Rank 8? You?" he asked.

"It is indeed I," Ning said. "Vice Headmaster, you don't need to marry your daughter away. I can heal her. Instead, however, I will require something from you."

Chapter 758 Healing"What do you want?" the old man got suspicious. There was no free food in this world, so certainly, the young man in front of him was looking for something.

"I want 3 spots of the 5 you have to go to the Forbidden Island," Ning said. "Can you do it?"

The old man frowned for a moment. "3 spots? That's a lot," he said.

"If you agree to do that and then break the marriage, I can heal your daughter right now," Ning said.

The old man rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment. He didn't care about the spots as much as people thought he did, but there was no way this young man could just heal his daughter who he himself had tried to do so for a very long time.

But, the old man couldn't give up on the chance, now could he?

"Fine, you have a deal. But I have some conditions of my own too," the old man said.

"Hmm, let's hear it," Ning asked.

"I cannot just give away my spots. You will have to join my school and then you can take it," the old man said. "Also, you will only get the spots after you heal my daughter."

"That's…" Ning thought for a moment. He didn't really want to join any school, but if he had to…

Ning shrugged. "That's fine with me. Should we go heal your daughter then?" he asked.

"Okay, get in the carriage," the old man said and go in himself first. Ning followed behind and got into the carriage. The beasts pulling the carriage started moving, and the two of them were on their way.

"I don't have much time, sorry," Ning said and grabbed the man's shoulder. The old man immediately attacked back in reflex, but he stopped when he saw the world change around him.

From the carriage, he had suddenly appeared inside… his house? Was this his house? Or some sort of an illusion?

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What was going on?

"Papa! You're back." A middle-aged woman ran up to the old man and hugged him around his chest.

Ning looked from the side at the innocent woman who looked old but had a mind no better than the little princess he had left behind a few days ago.

"Hello," he said from the side and waved his hand towards the woman.

The woman finally noticed Ning, and immediately ran behind her father before peeking from the side. "He-hello," she said shyly. "Are you my father's friend?"

"Yes. Yes, I am," Ning said with a smile. He slowly walked closer, while the old man got on guard.

He ignored the old man and looked at the woman. "My name is Ning. What's your name?" he asked.

"Ye-Yelena, Yelena Beringer," the woman said.

"Can you come here, Yelena," Ning asked.

The old man was still reeling from the fact that he was back in his home. What sort of beast had this sort of ability?

Yelena looked at her father with curious eyes and the old man finally needed to think for real.

"Yes, go," he said and let his daughter walk up to Ning. Yelena nodded and slowly strode forward, feeling shy but in no way afraid like her father did.

Ning watched the woman come close to him. He was a little surprised when he noticed that the woman actually didn't look like a woman. Her chest and hips hadn't grown at all despite being so old.

Ning asked the system and it turned out that due to the damage to her brain, many hormones that should have helped in her growth just weren't created.

It was like while some part of her kept on going with time, some part of her was forever in the past.

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The girl arrived right in front of Ning, and he placed his hands on her head. With a single thought, she healed.

The injury in her brain that had stopped her mental growth was gone, and her brain could finally function like an adult.

Her thought process got faster and more distinct, and her understanding of everything around her grew by a good amount. Hormones that her body previously didn't let out were starting to get created and the woman would soon go through physiological changes that she didn't understand about herself.

"What, what's happening papa?" she asked her father. Even though she was healed, she was still a child mentally, but she would grow soon.

"What did you do?" the old man shouted angrily when he saw his daughter cry all of a sudden.

"Don't worry, I healed her," Ning said and touched the woman's head and she lost consciousness.

"Where's your wife? You and your wife should have a talk with your daughter once she wakes up. Her latent developments will now take place and someone should really make her understand everything she missed."

The old man was too stunned to say anything for a while, but he quickly gathered his thoughts and called his wife.

"What? When did you get back?"

The old woman ran up the house and entered the room to see her daughter unconscious on the bed already.

"What's wrong?" she asked, not even paying attention to Ning.

"Nothing's wrong," the old man said. He was about to tell the woman that their daughter was healed, but just in case Ning was wrong, he didn't want to.

"Can you look after her, please? senior Haymond and I need to go somewhere real quick," Ning said and walked out.

"I'll be back in a bit," the old man said and walked out of the room with Ning.

The next moment, his world changed and the old man found himself in a dining room, standing to the side of the table, looking at the duke's family.

"Please, follow through on your promise," Ning said to the old man.

The old man finally understood what he was here for and spoke up. "Duke Grecian, I am sorry to say this, but I cannot have my daughter marry your son."

Chapter 759 ConclusionThe Duke sat there stunned while Ning sent the old man back and returned.

It wasn't just the duke, but rather everyone that was stunned, including Trevain himself.

This man had gone around so quickly and brought back so many powerful figures in the blink of an eye that if he were to ever want to assassinate them, there would be no way for them to save themselves.

Ning was now freely eating all the food that was in front of him, that had fortunately not gone very cold.

Saphandra didn't give much thought to the people around her as well and continued eating on her own.

Trevain finally started to realize that he was free. He was no longer bound by the marriage pact. Just as a smile broke out on his face, he heard the table get slammed and the duke stood up angrily.

"You think you can do anything you want just because you have the power, don't you? You ruined my son's chance to enter the Forbidden Realm, and for that, I will have you hung," the Duke said.

It was obvious that his anger was speaking more than anything, and everything he feared was getting pushed to the back of his head. Still, the fact that he spoke up when he saw what Ning could do made him shake his head in a sigh.

"You are angry that I stopped you from ruining your own son's life?" Ning asked. "Well, since you really seem to want to know, here's the truth. I didn't ruin your son's chance at entering the Forbidden Realm. I can guarantee that your son will enter."

"Huh?" the duke felt a whiplash of emotions as his anger faded away and surprise filled him. "M-my son will get to enter? Did the Vice Headmaster say this?"

"Yes, of course. I managed to make a deal before I brought him here," Ning said.

The duke smiled all of a sudden and it even widened until he couldn't stop his glee and laughed out loud in happiness.

"I should have met you earlier. I wouldn't have to bring home trash just to get my son a spot," the duke said.

The people around him weren't certain if he was talking about the youngest son that had come back or the poor mentally challenged woman he was going to marry.

"You can leave tomorrow. You are no longer needed," the duke told Trevain and finally started eating. The food had gone cold, but he didn't care.

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"Are you certain you want to send him away, Duke?" Ning asked.

"Of course! What need do I have of him anymore?" the duke asked.

"I don't know. I thought you would be more thoughtful around your son that is going to enter the Forbidden Island," Ning said while eating his fish.

"WHAT?!?"

"What?"

"Huh?"

Trevain, the Duke, and Lucius, all 3 reacted at the same time.

"Wait, brother Ning, I'm going to the Forbidden Island?" Trevain asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "I got us 3 spots from the old man. But we'll have to enter the First Bond school, so I hope you are ready for that."

"3 spots? Do I get one?" Saphandra asked.

"Of course. Why else would I get 3?" Ning said.

"Nice! I was planning on sneaking off on my own, but this is better," she said as she continued eating.

"You got a spot for the Forbidden Island and you're giving it to this trash?" Lucius suddenly got angry.

"What's wrong with that? I don't think it really matters since anyone who manages to bond with a spirit will become strong in the end anyhow," Ning said.

"He's a trash that can't even—"

Lucius suddenly toppled to the right and fell to the ground with a loud crash.

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"Son!" the duchess spoke out loud and stood up to check on him, but the young man was fine.

"What? Who pushed me?" Lucius asked as he looked around.

"You talk too much. Just sit and eat. Shouting is not going to get you a spot, nor is begging. You have already lost, so neither you nor your father needs to waste any more words," Saphandra said from the side.

The duke's face grew cold with anger, but there was nothing he could say.

"Don't worry, Duke. We will leave tomorrow morning and you will never have to see any of us 3 again," Ning said with the same smile on his face since the beginning.

The duke thought of saying something, but there really was nothing he could do, so he simply shut up and continued eating.

The Duchess and Ori looked dumbfounded at what had just happened in their home today.

The chefs brought out more food and Ning called for seconds. The atmosphere was silent aside from the metal forks and spoons hitting the porcelain.

After they were done eating, Ning and Saphandra went along to their rooms and forgot about the matters of the family.

They could only imagine just how angry the Duke was, but that didn't matter anymore. Trevain's marriage was saved or ruined, and now he was free to do whatever he wanted.

He had also learned to stand up against his father, which was something Ning was happy to see.

Ning went to sleep and the next morning, a carriage was ready at the doorstep to take them away.

Ori cried once more when she saw her brother leave just the day after he had returned, but Trevain promised that he would come back and be there for her once the thing with the Forbidden Island was over.

Only when the little sister agreed did Trevain get onto the carriage. Behind him, his young butler followed him as well, and both Ning and Saphandra got in too.

Trevain waved his hands toward his only two family members that still cared for him, and the carriage started moving.

He grew somber for a moment before smiling as he thought about the future. Determination filled his eyes and he made a promise to himself to get bonded with a spirit no matter what.

Chapter 760 First Bond CityNing, Saphandra, and Trevain got off the ship that went to and from the massive island known as the First Bond island, which was where the First Bond school was situated in.

Saphandra saw the people fly in on beasts or on their own and frowned. "We should have flown too," she said.

"It was just a small ride. We didn't have to fly," Ning said. "Did you not eat the medicine?"

"You said it was short, so I didn't," Saphandra said. She was barely holding back how sick she was. If given a bit more shaking, she would have vomited right then and there.

"Don't take your hat off now, or we'll be surrounded at an instant here," Ning said.

Trevain walked a little ahead of them and looked at the big, open gates of the school, and saw that a few people that came in were wearing a uniform.

But, most people were just like them, without any uniforms.

It had been about 2 weeks since he had left his father's house and had gone back to his own house in Ranadar city. After Ning had helped him place back all the items and furniture there, they left the young butler to look after it for 3 months while they came here.

Ning looked at the island as well. They were standing on a wooden platform, wide enough to fit multiple carriages in a row, that led straight to the massive open gates.

Seeing the people come in and out of the giant gates, Ning was sure that there was a bustling city inside there.

The island itself was surrounded by trees that led to a beach, so Ning couldn't guarantee that there was in fact a city inside there, but he would still bet on it.

As expected, as soon as they went in, past the small patch of trees through where the road was formed, they saw the city.

The city was rather small in their eyes. Being such a massive island, one would expect the city to be massive as well.

Since the island was mostly flat, Ning saw the majority of it from where he stood. The city was only for about a fourth of the entire island, surrounding a massive brick wall in the center that covered the rest three-fourth of the island in the middle.

That was where the First Bond school was at.

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A new person who came here might assume that the school had somehow used its power to push away most of the city, disregarding it, but those who knew the history knew that the school was what had formed first.

As for the city around it, it wasn't even as much of a city as it was just the family members of those who went to those schools, coming to live near them.

By now, the city was mostly, entirely formed of the family members of those who went to the school.

"Not bad," Saphandra said when she saw everything. It was close to noon, so they needed to hurry up and get to the school in time.

If they didn't, they would miss the entrance exam they had waited 2 weeks for and would have to wait for another month.

So, they hurried.

From what Ning had come to hear, the entrance exam for any of the 5 great schools was rather difficult. Not only was there a requirement to at least have yellow hair, but they also needed to have Rank 4.

And that were just the requirements to qualify to take the test. Ning didn't know what the actual test entailed.

They arrived at the gate and saw quite a few people there for the entrance exam. They were surprised to see that most of the people taking the test were actually kids that were barely the age of 15.

Ning had thought there would be older people here.

At the gate, there were several students showing the newbies their way to where the entrance was taking place.

Ning knew they were students because they were wearing the uniform as the others that walked around the city.

Long, blue robes, tight-fit to a student's body with a white shirt underneath and flexible blue trousers.

They were meant to look scholarly, and also not cause problems when they had to get physical whenever needed.

The three of them arrived by the students, who immediately stopped them.

"Please step aside if you're not here for the test. We are only taking in examinees at the moment. Wait if you are here for anything else," one of the students told them.

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"We're here for the test," Ning said without thinking much about it.

But the student surely did think for a bit. He looked at the three of them and frowned a bit.

"You are here for the test?" he asked.

"Yes," Ning said.

The student looked at them again. "Aren't you guys old?" he asked.

"Is there an age restriction?" Saphandra asked.

"Y-yes," the student said.

"Do we exceed that restriction?" she asked.

The restriction was at 30 years old, and not a single one of them looked 30.

"No," the student was forced to say.

"So can we go ahead?" she asked.

"Yes, please do," the student stepped away in shame. He started feeling awkward because he had stopped people just because they weren't of the usual age.

Ning felt bad for the guy. He was just doing his job. Still, it was just a small verbal discussion so he forgot about it and continued on ahead.

Behind the gate, behind the walls that held the gate, there was a massive building, made of many different buildings attached to it.

Some buildings had 2 floors, some had 3 floors. It was as if someone had started with a simple building, then needed to add more to it, and had to continuously do that for a long time before the school had come to be what it was.

"Please head this way," A student showed them the way to the test, and the three of them walked on.

:)